Australians are turning to light beer in preference to the full strength variety, but overall, beer consumption continues to fall, according to final consumption estimates for 1996-97 released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Low alcohol beer accounted for a quarter of all beer consumed during 1996-97, with Australians drinking 23.9 litres each, a rise of 6.7 per cent on the previous year. Consumption of full strength beer fell 2.9 per cent to 70.8 litres per person. Total beer consumption declined for the eighth successive year with a fall of 0.6 per cent. Wine consumption rose 4.0 per cent to 19.0 litres per person.

Soft drinks remained the most popular drink despite falling 0.7 per cent to 114.4 litres per person. The apparent consumption of tea and coffee also fell, with tea at 0.8 kilograms per person and coffee at 2.0 kilograms per person.

Australians consumed more grain products with apparent per capita consumption up 3.5 per cent to 96.9 kilograms per person. Significantly, flour intake rose 5.6 per cent to 81.8 kilograms per person and rice increased 11.7 per cent to 7.3 kilograms per person. Bread consumption also increased 3.5 percent to 51.2 kilograms per person.

Meat intake rose also, with apparent per capita consumption of meat and meat products up 5.9 per cent to 75.9 kilograms per person. Major contributors to the increase were beef, up 10.3 per cent to 37.7 kilograms per person, and mutton, up 18.8 per cent to 6.5 kilograms per person. Poultry remained fairly steady at 28.4 kilograms per person.

Consumption of table margarine declined by 13.4 per cent in 1996-97 to 4.7 kilograms per person. The per capita consumption of other margarine also fell, by 22.6 per cent to 1.9 kilograms. Butter and dairy spreads both fell, with butter down 5.5 per cent to 2.7 kilograms per person and dairy spreads down 10.4 per cent to 0.7 kilograms per person.

Details are in Apparent Consumption of Selected Foodstuffs, Australia, 1996-97 Final (cat. no. 4306.0) available in ABS bookshops in all capital cities. Main features of this publication are available from this site.

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